Tough to recreate 1980s Mumbai: Sanjay Gupta

Sanjay Gupta, who is all set to release his next gangster film, is not very fond of the usual run off the mill romantic comedies. In fact, he feels there are other “important things” that need to be narrated by filmmakers.

“There is so much to see and show. We (the film industry) are bound by a formula. But in the end, the subject is what matters in filmmaking” Gupta quips. The film that is set in the 1980s Bombay, tells the tale of the city’s first encounter.

And Gupta says his entire cast has done an excellent job of portraying their respective characters. He says, “John Abraham as Manya Surve and Sonu Sood as Dawood Abrahim have fitted the bill.”

On whether it was difficult to recreate the city that was back then, Gupta admits that S Hussain Zaidi’s book on the gangs of Mumbai was a great source for reference. He explains, “We had lengthy discussions with the author about the plot and screenplay.

We had to tell the story without being biased. We had to spend a lot of time in research and interviews,” and adds, “It was a very difficult task to create the Mumbai of the ’80s.

We had to work on every small detail like the transport system and other features of the city. For example, to get the look of the BEST bus of ’80s, we had to convert an old school bus into one, with many efforts from our art team!”